Qing Xin Da Mao

The cultivar traditionally used for Oriental Beauty, selected because its leaf is readily bitten by the tea jassid whose feeding triggers the tea’s characteristic honeyed aroma.

青心大冇Camellia sinensis var. sinensisTaiwanAlso called Da Mao

Where it sits in the botany

Qing Xin Da Mao is recorded under Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, the variety group one level above cultivar. It is associated with Taiwan, which is where it was selected or is most widely planted rather than the only place it grows.

Also transliterated as: qing xin da mao.

What the plant is like

This is the clearest example in tea of a cultivar chosen for how it responds to an insect rather than for its own flavour.

Why a grower plants it

Yield, hardiness, when it buds, what it resists and whether a machine can cut it. This is the half of a cultivar’s identity that decides what is actually in the ground, and it is usually left out of writing aimed at drinkers.

The only cultivar in this catalogue selected for how attractive it is to an insect. Oriental Beauty depends on tea jassids feeding on the shoot, which triggers the plant's defensive response and produces the honeyed aroma the tea is bought for — so the field cannot be sprayed, yields fall because the crop is being eaten, and the leaf that arrives at the factory is small, uneven and damaged by any conventional standard. A grower is deliberately accepting a pest infestation and pricing the tea accordingly.

What it does in the cup

Reported as honeyed and muscat-like with a soft, ripe character and very little of the green edge a less oxidised oolong carries.

How much of this is really the cultivar?

The honest attribution here is a three-way one: the plant, the insect and the heavy oxidation that follows. None of the three produces the tea alone, and the insect is the part most often left out of the story because it is the least appealing. The cultivar's specific job is to be worth biting and to convert the damage into aroma rather than simply losing yield — which is a real and unusual cultivar contribution, and still not the whole of it.

Cultivar, growing site and processing all shape a cup, and the cultivar is very often the smallest of the three. It is also the one that fits on a label, so almost every commercial incentive runs toward overstating it. This section is on every cultivar page that has been reviewed for it, including the ones where the honest answer is “less than you would think”.

What it is usually made into

The categories this cultivar is typically processed into. It is a statement about common practice, not a limit — processing decides the category, and a cultivar can be taken down more than one route.

Oolong — Partially oxidised teas, bruised deliberately and often roasted — the widest-ranging category in tea.

Teas in the catalogue made from Qing Xin Da Mao

Other cultivars in Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

Sources

TeaHQ editorial synthesis — TeaHQ

This page is TeaHQ’s own synthesis throughout. No breeding register or institutional record stands behind the account above, which is why the origin note carries its confidence in the open rather than reading as a citation.

How TeaHQ handles sources

Written comparisons

Where TeaHQ has set this cultivar against something it is routinely confused with, and argued the differences out in full.

Bai Lu (No. 17) vs Qing Xin Da Mao — The two cultivars used for Oriental Beauty, a tea defined not by a plant or a place but by an insect. Both are chosen for how they respond to leafhopper feeding rather than for their own flavour, which makes them the clearest example in tea of a cultivar selected for a relationship.
Qing Xin vs Qing Xin Da Mao — Two Taiwanese cultivars with nearly the same name and completely different jobs. One makes high-mountain oolong; the other was selected because the tea jassid readily bites it, which is what makes Oriental Beauty possible.